Unconventional Methods Get Outsize Results

Eduardo Regal is Executive Director of Christ in the City, a Catholic nonprofit dedicated to forming young adults and communities to know, love, and serve those experiencing homelessness.

For more than two decades, Eduardo has led organizations through periods of growth, transformation, and cultural change. His leadership combines strategic vision with a deep commitment to human dignity, helping organizations align mission, people, and long-term impact.

At Christ in the City, he helped advance a distinctive approach to homelessness centered on friendship, trust, and human encounter. Under his leadership, the organization has become a leading voice in promoting a relational response to homelessness, one that recognizes loneliness, isolation, and broken relationships as some of the deepest challenges faced by those living on the streets. Through direct outreach and service, volunteer engagement, and community partnerships, he works to help communities see people experiencing homelessness not as problems to be solved, but as neighbors to be known and loved. This emphasis on encounter, dignity, and long-term relationships reflects the core mission and vision of Christ in the City.

Eduardo is fluent in English, Spanish, and Italian and holds executive certificates from Wharton and the University of Michigan. He is passionate about developing leaders, strengthening organizational culture, and helping others discover that lasting transformation begins with authentic human relationships.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to Eight Principles Voices. Conversations with those who are making a difference. I'm your host, Larry Johnson, founder of the Eight Principles. Now join me as I welcome this week's guest, as they invite us to come along on their journey. Hi, everybody. It's Larry Johnson, your host for Eight Principles Voices, and you're going to enjoy, really enjoy our guest today. It's someone I met just recently. You know, you just never know when you're going to meet people you really like. If you just keep your eyes open, you meet people and you just learn so much. And so I met Eduardo at a donor event, I guess it was in California not too long ago. And I was just really taken with his story and what he does. And so I wanted to bring him on the show, Eduardo Regal. And he is the CEO or the executive director of Christ in the City, which is an urban ministry that has several locations, and he's in Denver. So I'll let him tell you a little bit about himself. But uh welcome, Eduardo.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Thank you, Larry. Hi, thank you for having me on your podcast. This is a it's a blessing for me.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Well, it's a blessing for me. That makes two of us. Um now, and you're Peruvian, correct?

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yes, I'm Peruvian. I was born in Lima in Peru. I moved to the US in 2011. So I've been living here 2014, excuse me. So I've been in the US for 11 years already.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah. So tell me a little bit about Christ in the city.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Christ in the City, it's uh it's a very unique organization because it has like three very different goals. The first, which that are combined all together. The first one is the spiritual growth and formation of young people, young Catholic men and women. And at the same time, it's a service to the poor, which is this combination that it's it's uh, I would say not very common in in the church. No, no, that is. And we have a third goal, which is the let's say, the transformation or evangelization of the culture with the approach that we have. So a good way to uh understanding this unique combination is how it started. So maybe I can start sharing with you that uh Jonathan Reyes, uh, who in Denver, he was living in Denver, he had the uh idea of this kind of program because he was helping organizations to start and to run, and those organizations were basically about the formation of the youth. He was helping focus, he was helping the Augustine Institute, and it those organizations were about evangelization, catechesis, sharing the word of God, learning the Catholic teaching for young people. And then later he became the CEO of Catholic charities in Denver, who was an organization dedicated to serve the poor, reach out to those who were in most need. And having these experiences of these two worlds, he saw that many times these two aspects in the church are not very well connected. So he had this idea: why don't we do something that connects these two aspects? So a formation program for the youth that are growing. They are going to be the future of the church and of the world. They are going to be the future professionals, um, husbands and fathers and mothers. So, and at the same time, he said there are there is poverty in our country and in the world, and we can address that poverty with these young people that really want to serve. He saw that in the past there there was a huge division between these two worlds, but nowadays there is a new generation of young people, especially Catholics, that don't see this difference between having a good formation and spiritual life and serving the poor. So they want to serve the poor. So that's how Christ in the City became the program that we are right now, which is helping young adults to grow in their faith, to learn about the Catholic Church, to learn to be prepared for the future. And at the same time, every day we go out into the streets to reach out to those who are suffering the most, people that are living in the streets and homeless. So another interesting question.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

So let me ask you, let me ask you a question. How do the young people come to you? How are they recruited?

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Basically, word of mouth and social media, I would say. So they they share with their friends what they are doing, and they share the joy that they have found in serving for a year because our volunteers, we call them missionaries, and they give one year of their lives to do this, to have this experience in community with other young people like themselves, and to reach out to the poor every day. In Denver, we have 30 missionaries, 30 full-time volunteers, and in Philadelphia, we have 20. So they form a very beautiful community of young men and women, and they grow together and they go out to the streets together. So they enjoy being part of this group of um people that want to have the same goals, the same uh desires to grow in their faith, and at the same time to reach out to the poor and help them.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

So these are young people that come to you who are pretty much self-identified based on what you've said. They identify themselves, they want to be a part of this. And then um they are used um in a um in a ministry to the poor. Um, and there was something there's another thing, I was gonna say something else about that. Um, that these are what college-age kids? Are they high school, uh older?

SPEAKER_00 6:25

It's it's so the requirement would be 18 through 27. Most of them are, I would say between 22 to 25, usually, usually when they finish college before starting to work or doing a master's degree or something, that's when they take this gap year to volunteer.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

This is a street ministry, is what it is then. You're you you go down right to the streets. Um, and uh, do these people get any training? Are there what kind of supervision do they get? I'm just kind of curious is this organic? How does it work?

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Yes, at the beginning of the year, we have like almost three weeks to a full month of training. The training begins with building the community of friends, because that is going to be key. It's a it's a it's a part that we can't miss because once they start going out to the streets, they are going to see very tough situations. So the support that they need is what we build at the beginning. This is 30 people or 20 people coming from different states, different walks of life. And they we we emphasize a lot the friendship. So they create a beautiful community that is going to become the support throughout the year for them to be able to go to the streets. We divide the community, let's say we have 30 missionaries in Philadelphia, in Denver. We divide the community in small groups, and that group becomes a team, a street team. So the same group walks the same route the whole year. So that has many uh advantages. One is that it's a small group that they really get to know each other, they really get to help each other, they walk the street together, and they meet the people living in the streets on those routes because homeless people usually live in the same area, even in the same street. So that's what that's important for us, the consistency. I'm going, we're going to share how we do our ministry later, but that that consistency of the same small community of people reaching out to a single person living in the streets every day, every month, and every year, it's very important for them.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

So um, these people walk the same routes, they meet a lot of the same people. Is the goal simply to befriend these people? Do they provide some sort of services? Do they find out what they need and direct them in the right way? Do they invite them to church? What's the parameters of the ministry?

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Yes, that's when it comes the to the interesting part because Mother Teresa had a very profound saying. She said, Many people talk about the poor, but very few people talk to the poor.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Let's say that again. Repeat that very many people talk about the poor. Very few talk to the poor exactly. That's a very big difference.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

It is. And after walking the streets for these 12 years or so, we have found something that is important. At the root of homelessness, there are always broken relationships. There are there is crime, addictions, financial struggles, mental issues, everything. But there is one common denominator, broken relationships. Something happened at some point in the in their lives, and it could be one of the of the previous crime, it can be addiction or something, but at the end, there are broken relationships. These people that really don't have anybody in the world, anybody to reach out to. And because of that, that's why we can understand that there are many resources. There is food, there is medicine, there are shelters, there is money, there are houses. But at the same time, there are many people living in the streets. So why people living in the streets don't reach out to the many resources and money that is being offered to them in different ways? Because for many of them, I wouldn't say everybody, but for many of them, they don't have this someone or some people with them to help them to overcome their situation. So what we provide, uh, when we see this broken relationship, we provide healthy relationships. We provide friendship in Christ. We we reach out to them to get to know them. We don't offer food, we don't offer anything, we just offer friendship.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

You know, and uh let's talk about that because this you know, homelessness is in in some places an epidemic. Um, and uh there's all this hand-wringing about what it is and what causes it. And generally speaking, the uh the public or uh our government answer, the civil answer is to throw money at it, either through facilities or or drug rehab programs or something. But what you're saying is at the root of all of this is a lack of a relationship, the lack of human contact. And so there's no amount of material or social programming that's gonna make up the difference for that. That's not gonna compensate. So you're you what you say is that you are providing that, and as you're providing it within a Christian setting, so you're offering them the love of Christ, which enables them to connect, to reach out. Um, and then uh if if they need some sort of quote unquote services, you can direct them to the right place. But that's not what you really you're providing. You're providing friendship to these people, correct?

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Yes, that's that's exactly because I would say many people living in the streets, they have lost the desire to overcome their situation. They they have already assumed that they're going to be living like that and die like that. Nothing is going to change.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

So they've come to they've come to accept their situation, they've become passive in their situation.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

So even if there are if there are resources, I don't need them, I don't want them, I can't. It's very difficult. So why is that happening? Because they they see themselves, they don't want to see themselves as a problem to be fixed. What we what we say, one of our mottoes is a homeless person is not a problem to be fixed, it's a person to be loved. So once they we respect their dignity, we see them as they are, where they are at, where we see them in the in the in the uh streets and start talking to them.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

How are you doing? How is your day going? Tell me about your family, what are your desires? And we can at the beginning, of course, they are like a little bit uh surprised. And why are you coming? Why are you here?

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Okay, there's no there's a degree of suspicion, there's a degree of being closed. Um, they're afraid of being either uh hurt or to be uh what's the word? Um taking advantage of, sort of taking advantage of, um, either materially or spiritually, either one or both. Um that you know that explains a lot, Eduardo. That explains a lot.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

We see now that you bring the the faith aspect, one of the things that they reject very soon is people that come and want to fix their situation. That's why many case workers don't have much success because they come with a mentality, let me fix you, let me let me fix your problem, let me solve your problem.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Let me fix you. I love it. Let me fix you. You know, I will solve this. You know, I'll just let me fix you.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

And on the other side, they they need many what they say preachers. So they don't want to be preached because they feel that it's it's another form of trying to fix me because I have I have something that is broken.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

It's either fix me materially or save me spiritually.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

That's what they're saying.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

So when we approach them, we just approach as friends, as opening our friendship to them. Of course, the conversation about our faith, beginning with the name of our organization, they have their t-shirts, it says Christ in the city. The conversation about faith and God and Christ and what that comes up naturally, probably in the first, in the first conversation. That's very natural, but we don't come with that mentality. We just explain what we do. What we try to be, Christ in the city, the name is beautiful because we we aspire, we we want to be Christ, walk in the streets. We want them to see Christ in our missionaries, in us. We want them to see Christ extending their hand to them, smiling to them. But at the same time, we see Christ in the suffering. We see Christ in them that are in our friends in the streets, that's how we call them. We see Christ suffering. So we it's an encounter in which they see Christ coming to them, and we see Christ in them waiting for us to come to him. And and that's why that's why the name Christ in the city, Christ is walking the city, and we encounter Christ in the people suffering in the city.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Now, um, do these um do you have um uh well I'm sure they are, but I'd be I'm I'm sure that they're invited to formal worship services at some point, uh, invited to sit to to uh either take the can the elements or whatever is needed there. Um is there a particular parish they're invited to, or is it in the street, or how is it all set up?

SPEAKER_00 17:04

What we usually do is we have a beautiful story of one of our friends in the streets that he was not Catholic or Christian or anything, but he got to know the a group of missionaries. And at some point, the missionaries told him that, okay, goodbye, we are going to Mass at the cathedral. And he said, Well, what's the cathedral? Well, the cathedral is this beautiful church, it's big. Okay, can I come with you? Sure, come with us. And they and he and he came to Mass with them. And the cathedral in Denver, it's beautiful because it has these amazing stain glasses that are beautiful. So he came into the cathedral and just saw this. He had never been inside. He was in awe, contemplating the beauty of the stain glasses, and then the missionary started explaining to him what were the stain glasses about, the story behind, and that was a very natural process to him to get closer to the church. Finally, he became Catholic. He came into the Catholic Church, but as this natural process, it was not an indoctrination process, it was just sharing the beauty of the faith that the missionaries uh live. And that's how he became. So we don't have um, we don't try to bring them to a service or to a mass or to an event. If it happens naturally, that's going to happen. Another beautiful story, one of our friends, uh Roy, he became sick, very, very, very sick. He was living in the streets uh because he had some alcohol issues. And one day he was about to die. And he he was admitted into the hospital, and the doctors asked him, okay, let me call your family, your friends. Probably you're not going to make it. And he said, Well, my only friends are the Christian city missionaries. So the the hospital called the missionaries and they came and they prayed with him, and they prayed for him throughout the night, the whole night. And Roy says that he was almost unconscious, and he felt the prayer of this group of young people praying for him. And he asked God, he suddenly had this desire to pray, and he prayed, God, give me one more chance. And if I make it through the night, I'm really going to recover. So he prayed with them. They prayed with him, and he prayed. Finally, he recovered, thanks be to God. And that began his process of coming out of the streets. He reconnected with his daughters, uh, and he finally had that desire. That's what I was telling you, that desire to overcome his situation. Because with friendship, one of the things that happened is once you start you become friend with someone, then you start trusting someone. So trust appears. And with trust, you become like, okay, I trust in you. If you think that I can recover and you help me, I will do it. I I can do it. And that's when the missionaries start, accompany them. Sometimes it's a very practical step, like getting an ID, because many people in the streets have have lost their documents, IDs, and social security many years ago. So start recovering the ID, going into a detox session or a court hearing, whatever they need, that's when the missionaries start accompanying these people to in the process, even housing, of course. So I think it's beautiful to see that uh friendship uh becomes into trust, and trust becomes into this desire to break the shell that is covering them, that it's not allowing them to recover uh and start the path to recover.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

You know, um I'm sitting here listening to this, and this is very sincere, it's very serious. That kind of thing takes time, Eduardo. So what is the tenure of these people? Are they a year, two years, three years? What sort of tenure do they have? Your your your field staff?

SPEAKER_00 21:39

The missionaries they do one year, which is 11 months, and if they desire, which is about 50 percent desire to do a second year, one more year, after that they have to just move on and do something else. Okay. We think that one year is or two years, it's It's a perfect time for them to grow personally and then to be able to do this very demanding ministry because it is difficult. It is it is very difficult.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

I can only imagine because um now do you I presume that you have relationships with um uh medical providers, with law enforcement, uh, with these kinds of things where it becomes necessary to involve these people, correct?

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Yes, yes. We have partnerships and connections with all kinds of organizations, beginning with law enforcement, of course. Uh we organize, so our ministry is about going into the streets, but once a week we open, um we invite them to come to a lunch that we organize in a Central Park uh in Denver and Philadelphia and downtown. So we we bring them to have a meal, and it's not a food line. Of course, there is a food line for them to get their food, but then we have chairs and tables and we sit at the park. And that's when uh we invite the bigger community, the bigger Catholic community to come and join us in this lunch, which is that's when we connect to the third goal of President City, which is about sharing what we are doing with as many people as possible. So every Wednesday when we do the lunch in the park, a different parish organizes the meal, they prepare the meal, and they come with their volunteers from each parish. Okay, and the missionaries who we already know, our homeless friends, that we we introduce them to our homeless friends to have a meal with them. Because, of course, it is intimidating to talk to a homeless person just like that. It's difficult.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

So, and are these held outside, inside the park, the church? Okay, outside, yes, and I'm sure that's on purpose so that there's the uh the homeless person doesn't feel threatened or maybe they're being herded into a building or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Yes, many many of them feel uncomfortable in a closed space. Uh-huh. So that's why I was I was saying that um I was connecting up through law enforcement. Every now and then we have to call the police because of course if someone comes and it's like making some troubles, we have to call them. But they already know Crest in the city, they come and they are very welcoming and slowly try to help us. And that's why we partner with them, with hospitals, with shelters, with um psychologists and different people, because at some point, when the time comes, we can start accompanying our friends in the streets to all of these resources. It can take some time. We have uh another story, another beautiful story. We have uh uh uh one of our friends who was homeless for 46 years. He ran out of his house uh 12 years old. And he as a child, as a child. As a child as a child, and of course, so everything nothing worked with him. He tried working, he tried caseworkers, he tried everything, nothing worked. At some point, he decided, okay, this is my life, and he lived many, many years like that. So one day, this group of young people came to his uh tent. He was not even a tent, he was living inside a little thing close to the river. And uh they, hey, how are you doing? And the conversation started. And then uh after a while, he started saying, Hey, go away because the police is going to come, and because and they are going to kick me out of my space. So then the friendship started to uh develop, and after a while, after probably eight months, finally he decided to overcome his situation. He applied for an ID, and he finally now he lives in a very beautiful um apartment because he was able to overcome this with the friendship. So it took him about eight months. So it takes time. Oh that's why the missionaries they spend the whole year and then they when they are moving out, the new class of missionaries come and they overlap and they share the friendship that they have in the streets with a new group. Okay, and that's why they are never never abandoned, and we keep the friendship going.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

So there's this continuity. So you're talking about the same route, the same people, continuity over time. Yes. So we're looking, you probably have people that you work with, what, five years, six years, seven years?

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Yes, because of course there is a number of people living in the streets that are not necessarily going to get out of the streets because of their mental struggles, because of many, many different situations. That doesn't mean that they can't have a better life. They can have a better life even if they keep living in the streets, because there are so many complicated situations and even mental situations, that we we estimate that about 19% of homeless people are going to be chronically homeless. Let's say stay in the streets for a number of years. Most of homeless people become homeless because something happened and then they recover. They find a job, they find someone and they recover. But there is this percentage of people that are not going to be able to recover easily or never. We don't know exactly how many finally are going to live in the streets, probably for many, many years. Those are the people that we usually uh try to help the most.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Okay. All right. This is fascinating. So at any given time, uh, how many how many volunteers do you have in your program at any given time on average?

SPEAKER_00 28:32

Um, well, we have the the 50 full-time missionaries. Yes. We have for the summer, we have another just the summer is a three-week program, about I would say 200. And then we have a short spring program for college-age students, about 300 more. And from these parishes that I was telling you, and schools and different organizations, we train about 1,000 volunteers per year in this way to approach the poor. Because not necessarily not everybody can do this ministry and go out to the streets for a year, but everybody can really discover this relational approach to homeless people more than just a transactional approach. For example, a very typical question that we get is do we give money to that homeless person in the traffic light or not? And it's a tricky question because it's first of all, it's up to every uh each one of us to decide if we give money. But I what we recommend, what I do, is first of all acknowledge the person that it's in the in this in the corner in the traffic light. And just see at that person and smile and wave if you can. That makes a big difference because people in the in the corner with a little sign that says anything help, they become invisible. And nobody sees them. And of course, we many times we feel uncomfortable. Do I see this person is going to come or not? So the first step is to acknowledge the person that you see in the traffic light. Just say hi. That's going to change their day. Even if it's just one car throughout the whole day that say, Hey, hi. That is very, very significant. The next step is to, if if possible, if if if you feel comfortable, just say, How are you doing? How is your day going? I am Eduardo. What's your name? And they would say your name. And if you can repeat their name, hey Tom, very nice to meet you. Because they many times they don't hear their name, never, not in a month or in a week. Nobody, nobody knows their name.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

So you're saying the way to deal with a panhandler at an intersection is to get their attention and say hello. Um, they're gonna come over and they're gonna ask you for a for a handout. How do you handle that?

SPEAKER_00 31:12

What I usually say, hey, I don't have any money right now, but I just wanted to say hi and I'm going to pray for you. Have a great day. If I feel comfortable, I would even extend my hand and give them a handshake. Uh I think that's beautiful. Another thing that we is very useful is to have a small bag, we call it the curkey, uh curk kit, with something that is going to be useful for them, but not necessarily money. It can be like a pair of socks and a soft granola bar, a bottle of water, uh, an apple or something, something soft in general. So that we try to keep in our cars uh something to that is going to be useful more than money. I would say in many cases, money is not the most important need that they have. The most important need for them is, first of all, to be for them to be acknowledging their dignity. I see you. You are there, you are suffering, I acknowledge you, I say hi, I offer my name.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

So you're saying um that someone might approach you and ask you for food, but perhaps food isn't what they're really looking for, not fundamentally, correct?

SPEAKER_00 32:30

Well, in that in the intersection, they they are expecting money, of course. They are there to get money. It's not up to us to judge what they are going to do with their money, because we never know. Sometimes they really need the money, sometimes they are going to use the money in the wrong way, of course. Drugs and alcohol. Yeah, yes. So that's why giving money or not, it depends on not on the judgment that we can do. I think you're going to use the money whether or not it's it's it's up to us to give money. But what we know for sure is they need their dignity to be respected. They need attention, they need someone to acknowledge that they are there, they are not invisible. That's independent of their situation. If they are alcoholics or addicts, whatever, they are still human people, human persons. And they they are longing for this connection. And that connection can be a 10 seconds, even less, exchange of, hey, how are you doing? Have a great day. I'm going to pray for you. Goodbye. That is very significant. That really changes the lives of them. We have missionaries that have been standing in the corner with them in the intersection. And they were stuck and they were really shocked to see how many people don't see them. So they are really invisible. And at the at the beginning, it was surprising, but then it became, they became shocked. We are here. So that's that's what I would say.

SPEAKER_01 34:08

I think the natural inclination is to is to avert your eyes, um is to avoid making eye contact. Um this person will come over and they'll want something from you. How do you handle that? Um Eduardo, when I was growing up, um my father had a rule. Um, is what I've sort of come to look for. He would never give anyone money, but he would offer them a meal. And if they took him up on it, he would go out of his way to take them to a restaurant or someplace with or a sandwich shop, wherever, where they can get a meal. Now, I have done that. I've done that when I was in younger, and then in college when I was in Pittsburgh once when this uh was a busy day, right downtown, um, you know, busy, you know, business people everywhere. And this man approaches me. Um, he didn't look homeless, but he approached me and asked me for money for food or something. I forgot what the story it was he gave me, but it sounded plausible at the time. And I said, Well, I won't give you money, but I'll give you food. He said, Sure. So we went to a local sandwich shop. I went to the cashier, I gave the cashier enough money that he could buy pretty much what he wanted. And then I then I and I think as I think back on that, you see, I was in a rush to get out of there, go back to the office. I think it would have probably been better for me to just sit with him while he had his meal, correct?

SPEAKER_00 35:45

If you could, yes, it's I would I wouldn't say there is a one way, because of course if you are busy or if you don't feel safe or uh it's not the right time, you can do as much as you can, and that's I think that's fine. Especially for women, for example, they yeah, it's a different for a woman, and it's a different because they it could be dangerous.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

So that's why I always say if you feel safe, um even if you just say this was in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week on a busy street, and he went into a sandwich shop with me, people sitting there eating, and I ordered for him. Well, no, I gave her the money and she and he ordered. So in that case, I could have sat there and and and had lunch with him. It was this wasn't in the middle of the night or a shady street or uh something else, you know. And um, but I can understand if it's if it's a if it's a female, there's a whole different set of problems, issues there. Um, and I can see that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

Um I would say in general would be to uh in it, even if the in the biggest uh sense, we it's easy to give something in terms of it can be food, it can be money, it can be medical attention, it could we and the and the city and the state and the organizations can give a lot of things, which is and that is needed. Of course, they need those things that are provided, but something is still missing, which is this relational approach, this encounter, this contact. And this contact can have many different expressions. Like in our case, is we go out and sit with them in the streets. Volunteers, they come come to a lunch with at the park in an open space and they share a meal with them. It can be at the traffic light, it can be even beyond homelessness. It can be, let's say, if we have uh a grandmother that is we know she's lonely and far away and she's grumpy. I can call her, I can call her, and I can I can I can take upon me the uncomfortable moment of talking to my grumpy uncle or or friend because I want to I want to offer an encounter, I want to offer this friendship that and I think that that's why the approach is not necessarily to homeless people, but people in need that many times are around us. Who in my family, in my group of friends, in my community, in my neighborhood, needs accompaniment. They need this relational approach, this encounter. That's something I can give, and I can face rejection. Of course, in the streets, we face rejection many times. Yeah, no, I don't want. Well, goodbye. That's fine. That's part of the that's part of charity. That's part of we know that we are doing this for their own good. In our case, we do this for our faith as well. So we take upon ourselves the rejection and the uncomfortable moment of starting an awkward conversation. But everybody in our lives, we can take upon ourselves the awkward conversation with this person that it's annoying but needs help. And I can do it.

SPEAKER_01 39:11

I love when you said that. That's annoying because you know, you just feel that, oh, I really want to do this. I mean, do you really want to get involved with this? And there's that, yeah. And then the other thing I was thinking of when you were describing this is when Jesus says, um, when you do it to the least of these, you've done it to me. And he talks about that, what that really means. Um, and he's talking about a relationship of some kind. Uh, he's not talking about just a handout. I mean, it's easy to hand money to people. Well, we live in a very wealthy society where giving money or giving things is actually the easiest thing you can do. It's the most effortless thing you can do. It's always there. But to give them time, uh, which is uh that's the key thing, is giving them time, that that contact. You know, I never thought of it that way, Eduardo. I mean, this isn't something that is really a very occurrent subject of the homeless. And yeah, and these people are in some way disenfranchised. They might be hungry, they may not be hungry, but they are disenfranchised. And how you manage to make that reconnection. Um, either you're you you're not just feeding them or saving their soul or whatever it is that your your goal is. Uh, and it for Christ in the city, the goal is to make that contact and to make that friendship. And from wherever that leads, it leads.

SPEAKER_00 40:40

Um, for example, now we we have so many volunteers that we can bring them, all of them, to the lunch in the park. So this not the missionaries, but the volunteers. So we now we have opened our night ministries and we go to jails, we go to nursing houses, we go to um uh shelters as well, to places where people are just being alone and in need because, or they don't have other people. Of course, many times they they suffer some kind of poverty or or challenge, but we bring this connection, this friendship, which is come in our case, it comes out of the love of Christ. And I would say the transformation, it's amazing. It's it's it's very beautiful to see how people light up when they see these people coming and just to talk to me, just to encounter and have a conversation, a 30-minute conversation that we all have throughout the day all the time. They don't. They don't have that 30-minute conversation with someone that is really caring about me, sharing about soccer or football or something. They they they are longing for this. And it's amazing to see how these small connections become the missing piece for them to recover, to start a new life. And that is very difficult to quantify and to explain because you see how long it takes me to explain to you.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

Well, actually, it's pretty easy, but what you're dealing with is a lot of preconceptions that you're having to get beyond. Now, I want to move to uh this, of course, is a you're an independent lay ministry, correct?

SPEAKER_00 42:27

Yes. Uh-huh. It's a normal 54163, a nonprofit organization.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

So is this you're supported 100% by uh charity, by individual donations?

SPEAKER_00 42:38

Yes. So about 25% of our fundraising is done by the missionaries, which they they um reach out to their friends and family to pay for a quarter of their participation uh cost. And we fundraise the other 75%. So we do events, we have one-on-one encounters of uh ask for donors to support us.

SPEAKER_01 43:09

I like that. Um so um are you the head executive and the head fundraiser, or do you have somebody else that does that, or how is it set up?

SPEAKER_00 43:19

We have uh a development director in Denver, which is our senior development director, and another we just hired a new development director in Philadelphia. So they are they have the development and fundraising as their main goal. Of course, I have to help as many as everybody in the nonprofit world, all the the executive director, the CEO have to be very involved in the fundraising part. But we have a we have a team that is helping us with that.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

I like what you just said that executive directors have to have a part. There are plenty of executive directors in this world at Wardale that. Think fundraising is not their job. And it is their job. And because fundraising, you're gonna you're gonna appreciate this. As you know, the most effective fundraising is really building relationships with those who are your benefactors, your patrons, as opposed to executing a transaction of writing me a check or doing a stock transfer or whatever it is it might be. You are very much relational, and that's where you're focused. I love it. So then you are both the executive director for the one in Philadelphia and Denver at the same time? Yes, yes. Okay. So your but your residence is actually in Colorado? It's in Denver, yes. Uh-huh. Okay. Okay. Um, how often do you get out to to Pennsylvania?

SPEAKER_00 44:46

I try to go, it depends on the year, but I usually three or four times I try to go to Philadelphia. And I think that going back to the development part, at the very beginning, when we were starting, one of our benefactors told us that one of the things he it was tough to him because he was helping many organizations, is that many nonprofits um approach him like if he was an ATM, just giving money away. And that's that really make uh that really shocked me because yes, he's not an ATM, he's a friend of mine. He's a friend of mine, and what we want to do is come and join our mission. You can't go into the streets every day, but you can join our mission with what you can, which is your financial support, your prayers, your company, your friendship. So I think that's and for that, the the leader, the executive director or CEO has this um broad picture of the organization that it's it's important for them to welcome benefactors into joining the mission, which is what we are trying to do.

SPEAKER_01 46:03

Well, of course, Eduardo, you are the poster boy for this. Let me tell you. Um that uh I hate I have to admit to you, however, though, that your point of view is not at all common. Uh, more common is the transactional world, the uh uh the um I need money, I've got a good uh mission, give me money. And then um, you see, you've already mastered the fact that your patrons are people, and your patrons have a flesh and blood interest in what you do. It's just not, let me give you a check and move on. Now, I mean, I'm sure there are a few people like that, but that's not the way you approach them, and you give them the opportunity to really be a part of whatever level they want to be a part. Um, so this is I've I've really enjoyed this, Eduardo. I've gotten to know you so much better at what you do. Uh I mean I mean, I thought I knew, and now I really know. Um, so now and you said all of your missionaries each are responsible for wage raising a portion of their own personal support.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

Yes, they do it through Christ in the seed, of course, because that that comes to help them do the year. Right. Um, and then we do the rest of the of the fundraising because we don't want them to have to fundraise everything because then the money would become a limitation for who can apply. Oh, absolutely. And we don't want to limit the applications to the ones who have a big connection of friends or a lot of money.

SPEAKER_01 47:40

So that's perfect the way you do this. I really like this a lot. I want to thank you for taking your time to do this. I'm so glad that I introduced myself to you when we were in Solana Beach. That was so much fun. And I think we're gonna do this again. Um, but um um God bless you, Eduardo. You're gonna write a book soon? You're gonna write a book soon?

SPEAKER_00 48:06

Not yet, but maybe at some point.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

I think you should. I really do. Um, you know, uh, ladies and gentlemen, we've been really enjoying just getting to know Eduardo today. I have for sure, in the work that he's doing. And we're probably gonna speak to him again at some point. And I just want to thank him again for his time. And I want to thank you for taking your time to listen today. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 48:30

Thank you, Larry.

SPEAKER_01 48:33

Thank you for listening today. Join us for our next episode when I'll have another thought provoking leader as my guest. Guest comments and opinions are their own. The recording is copyright by the eight principles, all rights reserved.